Every Gym Leader in Pokemon Generation 5 (Unova)

The Unova region is modeled after New York City and its surroundings, which explains a lot. The gym leaders here are not gentle professors or serene fishermen - they are a fashion model, a coal baron, a cargo pilot, a punk rock musician, and a museum curator who moonlights as a boxer. Generation 5, released in Japan in 2010 and internationally in 2011 for Pokemon Black and White, introduced some of the most fully realized gym leader characters in the series. Then Game Freak came back two years later with Black 2 and White 2 and swapped out three of the eight gyms entirely, which had never happened before in a direct sequel. The result is a generation with more unique gym leaders than any before it.

Black and White alone gave players eight gyms. The first was run by a trio of brothers who each specialized in a different type - players faced only one of them depending on their starter choice. The eighth gym had two possible leaders depending on which game version you owned. The sequels replaced the first two leaders with fresh faces, promoted one to Champion, retired another to Hollywood, and added a brand-new Water-type gym in a city that hadn't existed in the original games. Across all four games, Unova produced eleven distinct gym leaders.

Cilan, Chili, and Cress

The Striaton Gym is the only gym in the entire series run by three leaders at once, and the game only lets you fight one of them. Which one depends entirely on your starter Pokemon. Pick Oshawott, and you get Cilan, who specializes in Grass-types. Pick Snivy, and Chili and his Fire-types await. Pick Tepig, and you face Cress, who uses Water. This is not a helpful arrangement for the player - your starter has a type disadvantage against whoever you're assigned. The gym is essentially a test of whether you've already diversified your team past the one Pokemon you got for free at the start. Cilan, Chili, and Cress are triplets who work as chefs in their family restaurant before and after their gym career, and they carry the color-coded aesthetics of their types right down to their hair. Each of the three has one elemental monkey - Pansage for Cilan, Pansear for Chili, Panpour for Cress - plus a Lillipup as backup. The badge they award is the Trio Badge. In Black 2 and White 2, the trio retired from gym leadership after a crushing loss to Team Plasma's Shadow Triad and can be found back at their restaurant. They still appear at the Pokemon World Tournament in Driftveil City if players want a rematch.

Lenora

Lenora runs the Nacrene City Gym, which is located inside a museum - because Lenora also runs the museum. She is an archaeologist, a researcher, and a gym leader simultaneously, which raises some questions about the Unova region's labor laws. Her specialty is Normal-type Pokemon, which sounds unexciting until you actually fight her. Lenora uses a Herdier at level 18 and a Watchog at level 20, and that Watchog knows Hypnosis and Retaliate. Retaliate doubles in power if one of your own Pokemon fainted the previous turn, which means the game punishes you for winning. The Basic Badge allows the player to use HM Strength outside battle. The puzzle in her gym involves answering trivia questions. The reward is TM67, also called Retaliate, which is her Watchog's signature move and a pointed reminder of how that fight went. Lenora does not return as a gym leader in Black 2 and White 2. The Nacrene Gym closes, and she continues her museum work. She's one of four BW leaders who don't make it back to a gym in the sequels.

Burgh

Burgh is a fashion designer and artist who lives in Castelia City, which is Unova's New York City analogue - the densely packed, towering-skyline hub of the region. His gym is themed around Bug-types, which he insists are as beautiful as any Pokemon category. He has a point. His signature Pokemon, Leavanny, evolves from Sewaddle specifically through friendship, which is a detail that suits someone who treats every creature as an aesthetic subject. The gym puzzle involves honey - players push through sticky patches to reach switches. In Black and White, Burgh uses Whirlipede, Dwebble, and a level 23 Leavanny. The Insect Badge is the reward. In Black 2 and White 2, he returns to the same gym with a slightly stronger team: Swadloon, Dwebble, and a level 24 Leavanny. The Insect Badge remains the reward in the sequels as well - the badge name did not change between the two games. Burgh is one of five gym leaders to return across both games, and he keeps his position at Gym 3 both times.

Elesa

Elesa is a runway model who also runs an Electric-type gym in an amusement park city, which is exactly as chaotic as it sounds. Nimbasa City has a stadium, a theme park, a musical theater, and a sports complex, and Elesa's gym is accessible via a series of roller coasters. Players ride the coasters to reach her. Her team in Black and White - two Emolga and a Zebstrika - is famous among players for being more difficult than the gym's position in the game would suggest. Both Emolga know Volt Switch, which lets them switch out after dealing damage, cycling Elesa's team to wear the player down. The Bolt Badge is her reward. In Black 2 and White 2, Elesa received a total visual redesign - different hair, different outfit, different attitude - and her team expanded to four: Flaaffy, Emolga, Jolteon, and Zebstrika. She's one of the leaders who returns across both game pairs, and she's one of the few gym leaders in any generation to appear in the game's story outside of the gym itself, crossing paths with the player in Castelia City.

Clay

Clay is a coal baron. He runs mines in and around Driftveil City, employs a large chunk of the local population, and leads the Ground-type gym in his spare time. He speaks in a thick regional drawl and addresses the player as "li'l partner," which is either charming or patronizing depending on how quickly he defeats your team. His gym descends into the earth - players cross girders and ride elevators to reach him at the bottom. In Black and White, his team is Krokorok, Palpitoad, and a level 31 Excadrill. The Quake Badge is the reward. He also gives out TM78, Bulldoze, after the battle - but only after he's dealt with Team Plasma blocking the entrance to Chargestone Cave, because Clay runs this side of Driftveil and he decides when people move through it. In Black 2 and White 2, he returns with Krokorok, Sandslash, and Excadrill. He's a steady presence in the region across all four games and appears in the story beyond the gym, connecting with the player near the Cold Storage and later referencing developments with Team Plasma. He runs Gym 5 in both game pairs.

Skyla

Skyla is a cargo pilot. Mistralton City has an airport, and Skyla runs it - she flies supply routes and delivers goods to isolated communities, then walks back into her gym to battle challengers. Her gym is built around air cannons that shoot players from platform to platform. She uses Flying-type Pokemon and holds the Jet Badge. In Black and White, her team is Swoobat, Unfezant, and a level 35 Swanna. She gives TM62, Acrobatics, which doubles in power when the user has no held item. The game has a small narrative moment before you can challenge her: Skyla climbs Celestial Tower to ring the bell at the top, and the player must follow her up there before she returns to the gym. In Black 2 and White 2, her team upgrades to Swoobat, Skarmory, and Swanna, and she remains at Gym 6. Skyla is one of the more memorable gym leaders in the generation partly because her occupation is specific in a way that many gym leaders' are not. She is not just a Flying-type enthusiast. She has a job, a route, a purpose outside the gym, and it shows.

Brycen

Brycen is the Ice-type leader of the Icirrus City Gym and the holder of the Freeze Badge. He is also, uniquely among Black and White's gym leaders, an actor. His backstory mentions he was once a film star who retired from movies to focus on training. In Black and White, he uses Vanillish, Cryogonal, and a level 39 Beartic, and gives TM79, Frost Breath, a move that always lands a critical hit. The gym is a standard Ice puzzle - spinning on ice tiles, navigating around walls. Brycen is reserved and intense, fitting the type. In Black 2 and White 2, he's gone from the gym entirely. Drayden takes over his slot at position 7, and Brycen returns to acting. He appears in a film-related subplot in B2W2 involving a movie being shot in Pokewood, a studio city new to the sequels. His gym career ended because the Shadow Triad - Team Plasma's elite operatives - defeated the Gym Leaders in the gap between the two games, leading several of them to step back. Brycen apparently decided that retirement from Pokemon battles was a reasonable response and went back to the thing he'd left behind.

Drayden

Drayden is the mayor of Opelucid City and the Dragon-type gym leader. He's an older man with a long white beard and an aggressive battle style - he specifically trains through physical combat with his Pokemon rather than commands alone, which is unusual for the series. In Black version, he runs Gym 8. In White version, Iris holds the same position with the same team, same badge, and same TM reward. The Pokemon are identical between the two leaders: Fraxure, Fraxure, and a level 43 Haxorus. The Legend Badge is awarded to winners. TM82, Dragon Tail, is the reward. In Black 2 and White 2, Drayden shifts to Gym 7 in Opelucid City, while Iris has become the Pokemon Champion. His B2W2 team is updated accordingly. Drayden serves as both a gym leader and a source of Unova's regional history - he and Iris share knowledge of the legendary Pokemon and the original story of the region, making his gym visit part of the game's larger narrative push toward the climax.

Iris

Iris is a young girl from the Village of Dragons near Opelucid City, and in Pokemon White she holds Gym 8 as the Dragon-type leader alongside Drayden's Black version counterpart. She is the only gym leader in Black and White who is explicitly a child. She wears her hair in two large spherical balls, keeps her Axew nestled in one of them, and is competitive, energetic, and occasionally condescending about how little the player understands Dragon-types. Her team in White is the same as Drayden's in Black: two Fraxure and a level 43 Haxorus. The Legend Badge. TM82. The shared team design was apparently a deliberate statement about the two leaders' philosophies - Drayden sees Dragon-types as symbols of power, Iris sees them as partners. Both approaches produce the same three Pokemon at the same levels. In Black 2 and White 2, set two years later, Iris has grown up and become the Pokemon Champion, the youngest Champion in Unova's history. She is not a gym leader in the sequels; she has moved considerably further up.

Cheren

Cheren was the player's intellectual rival in Black and White - the friend who always knew the type matchups, always had the right answer, and was always slightly insufferable about it. By the time Black 2 and White 2 begin, he has become a Normal-type gym leader in Aspertia City, a new location southwest of Nuvema Town where the original games began. His gym is the first one players reach in B2W2, and his team reflects it: Patrat at level 11 and Lillipup at level 13. He gives the Basic Badge, the same name as Lenora's badge in BW, and the same TM Normal as before. Cheren's transition from rival to gym leader carries some weight in the context of the game. He was a character defined by wanting to become strong, and somewhere in the two years between the games he decided that strength wasn't quite the thing he'd been chasing. Teaching new trainers and running a gym became his answer. He's a more settled person in B2W2, which is either development or defeat, depending on how you read it.

Roxie

Roxie is a bassist and lead vocalist in a punk band called Koffing and the Toxics, and she runs the Poison-type gym in Virbank City, a new industrial city added in Black 2 and White 2. Her gym is a live music venue. Challengers walk through the crowd and fight her bandmates before reaching Roxie on the stage. She uses Koffing at level 16 and Whirlipede at level 18, and awards the Toxic Badge. She's aggressive, confident, and blunt - one of the more distinctive personalities in the generation despite appearing only in the sequels. Her father is the captain of a ship that connects Virbank to Castelia City, and part of the early game involves dealing with his career decisions. Roxie is the second gym leader in the generation's sequel lineup, slotted between Cheren's Normal-type intro gym and Burgh's returning Bug-type gym. She represents the B2W2 approach of using new locations to expand the map while keeping the familiar backbone of the original Unova gym circuit intact. The Toxic Badge is hers alone - no equivalent existed in the original games.

Marlon

Marlon runs the Water-type gym in Humilau City, a beach settlement accessible only after crossing Undella Bay and climbing over underwater passages. He is the eighth and final gym leader players challenge before the Elite Four in Black 2 and White 2, and he is cheerful in the way that only someone who surfs every morning can be. He fights with Carracosta at level 49, Wailord at level 49, and Jellicent at level 52, and awards the Wave Badge. He is the strongest gym leader in the generation by level. Humilau City did not exist in Black and White - it's one of the locations added specifically for the sequels, and Marlon is entirely new, with no BW equivalent. His gym is designed around an outdoor water puzzle where players jump on lily pads. The contrast between the coastal, relaxed setting and the difficulty of his team is deliberate: by gym 8 in B2W2, the player has fought through seven leaders and an expanded post-Plasma storyline, and Marlon's team reflects that. He's one of the few gym leaders who explicitly tells the player they're strong before the battle begins and seems to mean it as a compliment rather than a warm-up ritual.